Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has said that “Italy can’t afford to close the doors to Russia” and “can’t cut ties” with Moscow. His statements come just days after Italian officials postulated that the sanctions against Russia may be lifted.

“Italy can’t afford to close the doors to Russia. At the
moment of the situation in Ukraine, we imposed sanctions on the
government of Moscow, but we can’t cut ties,” Gentiloni told
La Stampa newspaper in an interview.

Gentiloni added that Russia plays a major role in resolving world
crises, and he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit
the Italian exhibition “Expo-2015”, and meet with the
Italian premier, Matteo Renzi.

At the same time, Gentiloni said that the Italian government
“supports Kiev” and that the Ukrainian authorities
“have to do the necessary, painful economic and
constitutional reforms, including the independence of the Donbass
[Donetsk region]”.

The latest interview follows a diplomatic demarche by the
Ukrainian Ambassador to Italy Heorhiy Chernyavskyi over a recent
statement by Federico Eichberg, the Head of a Task Force on
Foreign Investments at the Ministry of Economic Development, who
said that Italy wouldn’t support the continuation of sanctions
against Russia.

“Italy has made it clear since February that the Council of
Ministers will not vote for the extension of sanctions,”
Eichberg said at an Italian business conference in Milan last
week.

Over the past year, Italian media published articles about the
economic impact sanctions had on the country’s economy, with
trade turnover falling by 17 percent, and the Italian economy
losing 5.3 billion euros.